Fire in the Sky
by RachelClaire
Summary: AU. Three years after Hana's Epoch, Shaman King Hao goes back on his promise and brings the world to the brink of an apocalypse. With their parents missing, the whole world after them, and no plan, Hana, Alumi and Men seem to be the world's only hope.


**Summary: **Three years after Hana's Epoch, Shaman King Hao goes back on his promise and brings the world to the brink of an apocalypse. With their parents missing, the whole world after them, and no plan, Hana, Anna III and Men seem to be the world's only hope.

**Author's Notes: **This chapter has been entered into SK-Fan7's contest under the category, 'Post-Manga'. However, I hope that it will turn into a full-length fic at some point.

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><p><strong>Fire in the Sky<strong>

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><p><em>There is a clink of chains, and then a drawn-out creak as a large door opens, spilling light onto the floor of the otherwise pitch-black space. Footsteps advance into the room, echo off the damp walls, and then stop outside a cell. For a moment, there are no words.<em>

_A gleeful voice. "Guess who I've found, little prisoner!"_

_No one replies, so the man continues gloating._

"_I should send onis to do my work more often. I sent some down to the western coast yesterday to scout for survivors. To tell you the truth, I didn't expect to find anyone. After all, I've already got everyone of importance, haven't I, hmm?"_

_Still no reply._

"_Well, it seems that there _were_ some people living there after all! I bet you can't guess who it was…"_

_Leaving barely any time for a response, the man suddenly lashes out at the bars separating him from his prisoner and snarls, "Answer me!"_

_A second later, his composure returns and he puts his hands onto the bars to stop them ringing. "Oh," he coos gently. "Oh, but you already know, don't you?"_

"_Please…" somebody whispers. "Please…"_

_The man laughs, and turns to go._

"_Good luck sleeping tonight, Anna…"_

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><p>I peered out of the window for the billionth time that morning. A group of Hao's soldier missionaries had come down the main path from the village yesterday evening and now they were just… standing there. They were a common sight in the world now, since the Shaman King had gone back on everything he promised and sent the world to shit, but we rarely saw them this close to the rickety old shack we called home. The sight gave me the shivers. They weren't close enough to us for it to be a problem yet, but they looked unsettlingly like they were guarding an escape route.<p>

"Hana, looking at them isn't going to make them go away, you know," said Anna dryly, sitting at the table, cutting up the bread we'd stolen yesterday. She was the mother-figure of our little gang, having crossed the ocean from America to seek out help from my mother, from whom she'd previously received training. It was her bad luck that, by the time she arrived, no one — not even me — knew where Anna Asakura was.

"I say we go out there and kick their butts," burst out Men.

I smirked, turning away from the window. Men Tao and I had known each other before Hao had come back, as he sometimes stayed at what had been my home. Before Anna found us, we had put up with each other for the sake of company. We still clashed from time to time.

"Go on then, Tarzan. We'll watch from here."

Men glowered at me for a few seconds and then the room fell silent. The others didn't want to say it, but they had to be as worried as I was. We'd been here, living on this shack on a beach in the west of Japan, for over a year without any signs of soldiers. Why now? We knew that Hao was looking for us — I'd even heard a soldier say my name once, before I got away — but if those soldiers were there because of us, how in hell had they found us?

"…I could totally beat those apes," muttered Men after a bit.

Anna snorted and put the knife down. "Like last time?"

"You overreacted last time, I was about to smash that guy's face in when—"

"When _I_ saved your life," I interjected.

"You did not save my life!" Men thumped his fists down on the table.

"Whatever…" I trailed off, looking out of the window again. There seemed to be movement amongst the soldiers, but I couldn't tell what was happening. These soldiers, as far as I could tell from this distance, looked like some of Hao's elite army.

"Anyway, Men," continued Anna behind me, "you going out there would announce to them that there's someone here. It's best if we just lie low and wait for them to leave."

"Come _on_, Anna, the less of Hao's soldiers in the world, the better…"

I stopped listening, too intent on watching the soldiers. I had a bad gut feeling about them. It was probably just because we hadn't encountered any of Hao's minions for at least a month, and we'd never seen them this close to our home before. There weren't enough of them to beat us in a fight if it came to that, but still.

Amidamaru drifted into sight beside me. "Do you want me to get a closer look, Hana-dono?" he asked, his gaze fixed thoughtfully on the soldiers.

I considered it. "No." Hao had a knack for finding humans who could see spirits and forcing them to work for him. If these guys really were elite, it was likely at least some of them would be able to see Amidamaru. "It's too risky. You might be seen."

What could they possibly be doing out there? Thanks to Anna's Patch magic, the hut would just look like an abandoned, decrepit shack to their eyes. From their position, they could see a mile down the beach in either direction, so if they were looking for someone or something, they should be able to find it pretty quickly. There didn't seem any point in just bunching up on the path and waiting around. I shook my head, at a loss. Maybe they were off duty and just wanted to see the sea.

_Yeah, right. Because I'm sure Hao gives all his soldiers holiday leave._

Anna pulled me out of my thoughts. "Hana! Come and eat something."

I turned. The other two were already sitting at the table and had started eating. We looked like a right little family — Anna and I the parents, and Men our annoying kid. In better times, that first one might actually have had a chance of becoming true. Since beating Anna in a fight the first time we met, we had been betrothed. But I didn't think that things like that really applied since my parents had failed in their God-ordained task to prove that humans could be redeemed, paving the way for my crazy uncle to take over the world, capture my parents, and spend his time trying to kill us all. Besides, Anna had spurned my weak attempts at romance from day one, and in the end I had just backed off.

I got up off the window seat and went to join them, muttering a quiet, "Keep an eye on them," to Amidamaru.

I slumped down into a chair. "I thought we were saving food in case we can't get out for another few days."

"Don't be stupid, we've still got to eat something."

"Maybe they're trying to starve us out," suggested Men, after swallowing a large mouthful of bread.

"They could only do that if they knew we were here," said Anna, touching her temples lightly.

I glanced behind me at Amidamaru, who was still intently watching the soldiers. "I guess it's a possibility."

"Possible, but unlikely."

"It's not _that_ unlikely," said Men. "The whole damn world is looking for us."

I grimaced. "Thanks for that Men, we really needed to be reminded of that fact."

"What can I say? I keep you on your toes."

"I'm kept on my toes enough trying to keep you alive."

Men took a vicious bite of bread. "For the last time, Hana, you did not save my life!"

Even through the bickering, we were all keeping our voices lower than we normally did. It would be the last thing we needed for the soldiers to discover us because we were being too loud. In theory, Anna's shroud should keep the noise out as well, but there was no point in taking any chances.

Anna had been staring thoughtfully at the table. "Say they do know we're here." She looked up. "Why aren't they coming to get us?"

"They're trying to starve us out, like I—"

"Maybe they know there aren't enough of them to beat us," I said quickly, seizing the chance to antagonize Men further. "And they're trying to build up the courage to come and attack us."

As Men struggled to swallow his mouthful to reply with a retort, Anna considered what I had said. "If that's the case, it's more likely that they're waiting for…" She trailed off, her eyes widening as she realised something. "They're waiting for reinforcements."

The jokey mood evaporated. We all looked at each other in shock for a few moments, Men even forgetting to snipe at me for interrupting him. Was it possible? It would certainly explain why they were standing there pointlessly. If they waited until there were enough soldiers, and they blocked off all our escape routes, even three Shamans would find it difficult to get away…

"Shit," I said, voicing all our thoughts.

Anna stood up. "We need to get out of here. Now."

"Agreed. I'll grab the mediums." Men scampered into the next room.

"Which way are we going?" I asked Anna, who had begun throwing some food into a bag.

"Down the beach in the opposite direction," she snapped. "If we keep the shack between us and the soldiers and stick close to the cliffside, we might be too far away by the time they see us. They're probably not expecting us to run."

"Got it," I said, turning around. "Amidamaru, what are the—"

"Hana-dono!" he called, as if he hadn't heard me at all. "There are more soldiers coming down the main path!"

"What?" I rushed over to the window. "_Shit_!"

A stream of advancing soldiers was beginning to line the path back up the cliff, the trail disappearing out of sight around the corner. I could only assume that there were even more beyond them. There was no doubt now that we'd been discovered. It was only a matter of time before they would come for us.

"Men, toss me my sword," I shouted, as he came back into the room with an armful of weapons. "We need to leave _now_!"

Men obliged and headed for the back door. I caught the sword in one hand and swung it in front of me, my other hand reaching for my spirit.

"Amidamaru!"

I wasn't taking any chances. With Amidamaru in Oversoul in the sword, I followed after Men.

"Anna, come on!" I called over my shoulder.

We burst out of the back door, almost tripping over our own feet in our haste to get away. I had taken barely two steps out of the door when Men stopped suddenly, causing me to crash into him. Without a word, he roughly pushed me backwards until my back hit the house.

"What the hell are you doing?" I yelled, not bothering to stay quiet anymore.

"There are soldiers this way too," he hissed.

I looked up, horrified. He was right. Just coming around the corner of the cliff was another full regiment of soldiers. They were surrounding us. I froze up, my mouth opening and closing, at a loss to what our options now were.

Anna appeared at the door, a bag slung over her shoulder. She quickly took in the situation.

"We climb up the cliff."

"_What_?"

"Get up the cliff now, Men!"

He took off towards the bottom of the cliff, with me and Anna close behind him. It didn't seem like a great plan to attempt to scale a steep cliff at the best of times, but especially now when our unprotected backs would become targets for whatever weapons Hao's lackeys had with them. But I didn't have any other ideas and I had to admit that Anna's plans had got us out of trouble countless times before. Besides, if I was picturing it correctly, there was a dense forest somewhere on the top of the cliff. If we could reach that, there was a chance the soldiers wouldn't be able to follow us in.

I risked a glance behind me when we got to the bottom of the cliff. The soldiers further away had begun to pick up their pace, and there was frantic movement amongst the ones at the bottom of the path. They must have seen us. At least we'd get a good way up before they could get near enough to have us in range.

I glanced up at Men's rapidly ascending body, and quickly grabbed Anna's shoulder. "What if there are soldiers at the top as well?" I asked quietly, so Men wouldn't hear.

She gave me a frustrated look. "We'll work that out when we get there. Come on!"

She started up the cliff, her feet slipping a few times before she got a firm grip. I glanced behind me one more time before following suit. The cliff wasn't actually as steep as it looked, and there were lots of footholds. But the going was slower than I would have liked, and having to hold my oversouled sword didn't help. I didn't look behind me again as we climbed, but I could hear the noise of Hao's soldiers getting closer and closer. Was this what my parents had felt like before Hao had caught up with them?

"Amidamaru!" I said through clenched teeth, trying not to think about them. His eyes looked at me from the hilt of the sword. "Form a shield behind me."

He quickly did so, and I felt less like a sitting duck.

"Anna!" I called upwards. She glanced down at me. "Use your spirits to form a shield! Tell Men!"

She nodded and I heard her softly say her spirits' names. For a few moments, I thought that we might actually make this. But then two things happened at once.

The first was that the front line of soldiers finally had us in range. A bullet hit the cliff above my head and I ducked on instinct, nearly losing my grip. Then a hailstorm of bullets seemed to hit all around us. Dust clouded up into the air and into our lungs, making breathing hard. For a second I felt light-headed, for more reasons than one; if we had waited another minute before putting shields up, we'd all be dead by now.

The second thing that happened was that the soldiers began to chant. It took me a while to figure out what they were saying, but when I realised I wondered how it could possibly have been anything else.

"…Hao! Lord Hao! Lord Hao! Lord Hao…"

I went cold, and came to a halt. Above me, Anna and Men had stopped as well, listening in horror to the masses below us worshipping a devil in god's clothing. As we clung there, frozen in place, bullets bouncing off our shields, I noticed that there was smoke coming from our shack. A second later, it burst into flames. I felt as if the breath had been knocked from my chest. This was the second time I had seen my home burn to the ground.

The thought kicked me into action again. "Come on, keep moving!" I shouted, and pushed onwards, determined not to go down without some sort of fight. Anna was slow getting started again so I overtook her, scrambling up quickly and trying to ignore the irregular sound of bullets bouncing around the cliff. They were less frequent now, as if they'd realised that shooting at us wasn't helping. I quickly caught up with Men. He was moving up slowly, but seemed unable to take his eyes off the burning shack now a good distance beneath us.

"Ignore it, Men, we can find somewhere else," I shouted, trying to make myself heard over the explosions and chanting. "Just concentrate on getting to the top now!"

He nodded mutely, his eyes wide with panic. I understood what he was feeling. Standing and fighting would have been okay — it's what we're used to. This running away made it feel like we were helpless, and that made it terrifying. But I had no time to sympathise. "Come on, try and keep up with me," I said, overtaking him as well.

I had expected Men to recognise the challenge and be kick-started into action but, although he took his eyes off our flaming home, his pace didn't increase immediately. When I looked down a minute later, Anna had passed him as well. She shouted something at him that I couldn't hear and that seemed to bring him back to himself.

Below us, the entire beach was now covered with soldiers. If we'd stayed put or tried to fight, there would have been no way we could have fought off that many men, Shaman or not. Some of them had started to climb the cliff after us, but they were never going to reach us in time. Anna was right behind me and Men was starting to catch up again. Nearly there, nearly safe...

The cliff widened up as we neared the top and Anna came side-by-side with me, Men close on our heels. The soldiers below had stopped shooting; instead, they were swarming around the burning house or the bottom of the cliff. Again, I began to hope.

I reached the top first. I guess I expected to see a long stretch of grass in front of us, leading to the dense forest just a little way away, and perhaps the nearby village in the distance. What I actually saw was another group of red-clad soldiers, ready and waiting for us.

I swore loudly and quickly swung my shield around so it was in front of me, scrambling up the last couple of feet at the same time. These soldiers were silent and motionless, the front ones only thirty metres or so away. Behind me, Anna and Men also reached the top and stood up warily, each holding their spiritual shields out in front of them.

My heart was in my mouth. There were a lot of them. Too many to fight? I wasn't sure. Why were they just standing there? What were they waiting for?

Suddenly, Anna collapsed.

"What the—!" I took a step towards her and then had to stumble backwards as something whizzed past me at chest-height. It came from behind us.

"Get down!" Without thinking, I grabbed Men and tackled him to the ground. More shots zipped over our heads as I realised something: they had wanted us to come up here. They had positioned a whole regiment up here just so that we'd uncover our backs. I found myself blinking away sudden tears. _Anna_…. Then my battle instincts kicked in.

I pushed Men towards Anna. "Cover behind!" I shouted, positioning Amidamaru in front of me and keeping low to the ground. I didn't know whether Anna was dead or just injured, but someone was going to pay for it. The soldiers on top of the cliff started to edge forwards, occasional shots being fired at us. I deflected them easily with my shield, trying to decide where the best place to attack was.

"Amidamaru!" I shouted.

"Ready, Hana-dono," came his determined voice.

Yelling with the effort, I swung my sword back and slashed it in a wide arc towards the soldiers. Amidamaru's power rushed from me into the sword, and then continued outwards, gaining size, as a blade of energy. The wave hit the front line of soldiers, knocking them backwards. I didn't wait to see the result. We needed to get away from the edge of the cliff.

"Men, come on!" I called over my shoulder, shuffling backwards to grab Anna's hand as Men, still blocking shots from behind, grabbed her other one. As we pulled her away from the edge, it struck me how she was really going to kill us later for getting grass stains on her dress. Then I wanted to laugh at my absurdity.

My attack had slowed the soldiers down, but then their discipline (or, at least, their fear of Hao) kicked back in and they again started to advance on us. I was acutely aware that the soldiers climbing up the cliff after us would swiftly have us surrounded again if we didn't get away soon. I thought quickly. We didn't have to annihilate all the soldiers; we just needed to clear a path so we could get through. Once on the other side, we could hide in the forest. The soldiers were spread quite thinly, presumably because they didn't know where along the cliff we would climb, so it shouldn't be too hard. The only danger would be making ourselves vulnerable to their bullets.

I looked at Men and he nodded, smirking slightly. He already knew what I was going to do. Simultaneously, we let go of Anna and turned to face Hao's soldiers. It was now or never.

Relying on the muscle memory that I had acquired through my many training sessions with Amidamaru, I leapt into the air. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Men fire Shamash and then start to oversoul Bason into his Kwan Dao. I raised my sword high in the air and then slammed it back down at the same time as Men pounded his Kwan Dao into the ground. Despite everything, I felt a rush of adrenaline. This is what I was born to do.

Our joint attack formed a crack in the ground that ran directly into the regiment, splitting them effectively in two. Some fell down it, others got knocked back and, as I expected, others started to panic. Even Hao couldn't completely free people from fear, and I was willing to bet that most of these poor brainwashed sods had had no idea what we were capable of. Shamash too, hovering above the soldiers with his ominous hammer, waiting for Men's order to attack, must have been a menacing sight for those that could see spirits. Even if they couldn't, I had no doubt that they would be aware of there being _something_ there.

No more shots were being fired now. I guess most of them had lost their nerve.

"Again?" Men asked, smirking. His confidence had returned pretty quickly. I'd probably be the same if it wasn't for Anna's limp body just behind us.

"To the right of the last one," I confirmed.

This time our synchronized attack didn't just throw soldiers back — it caused some of them to start running away.

"Scatter, rodents," Men sneered at them, as I sent another spiritual blade of energy towards the ones closest to us.

"Cut the quips," I said, panting with the effort. "Let's get out of here. Keep an eye behind us in case those other ones come up."

"You keep an eye behind us. I've got some soldiers to crush."

I couldn't help rolling my eyes as he swept his Kwan Dao around menacingly and then called out to Shamash. He was loving this. I left him to it and went back to Anna's side, giving her a quick once-over. To my intense relief, she was still breathing, but there was no time to tell what damage had been done. I picked her up, slung her over my shoulder and snatched up the bag she had been carrying, all while keeping my shield in front of me. This wasn't over yet; there was still a chance we weren't going to make it out.

"Shamash, now" shouted Men. I looked over just in time to see his hammer come down on the soldiers still brave enough to be standing around the gash in the ground, and winced. They wouldn't be dead — they'd just wake up in a few days with a screaming headache — but I still felt sorry for these men. They didn't have a choice, so we weren't really against them.

The remaining soldiers started to flee away, with only a few in authoritative uniforms standing their ground and calling out for the others to stay. It didn't matter though. We now had a clear path to the forest and I could only hope that there was no way a few humans would be able to stop us.

"Let's go," I shouted to Men, who was having far too much fun directing Shamash's movements. To his credit, though, as soon as he heard me he came back and took from me the bag Anna had been carrying.

"Let's get out of here," he said, as if that hadn't been my suggestion in the first place. In light of the situation, I decided to ignore him.

Positioning our shields so that we were protected from all sides, we began to run between the two cracks in the ground. A few shots bounced off us, but nothing got through the shields. I ended up running sideways at one point, and saw with a chill that some of the soldiers from the beach had reached the top of the cliff. It seemed that luck really had been on our side.

I was relieved that none of the soldiers tried to get in our way. In fact, if anything, even those that had still held their ground began to run away when we approached. I didn't blame them, and I was grateful for their fear. It would have been easy enough to get them out of the way, but right now I didn't want to waste the time.

People started to shout behind us, but I ignored them. Once we were free of the end of the group of soldiers, we re-positioned our shields again so that they were completely behind us, and carried on running. Men was starting to get out of breath but he didn't show any signs of wanting to stop. I resolutely didn't turn around or slow my pace until the shadows of the forest started to block out the sun.

I stopped, quickly put Anna down against a tree, and turned around. The soldiers weren't showing any enthusiastic signs of trying to come after us, but I wanted to be sure.

"What're you doing?" called Men, retracing his steps back towards me and not looking very happy about it. "We need to go further in."

"I know," I snapped. "I'm just making sure no one is going to follow us."

I whipped around without waiting for a reply. It looked like a lot of the soldiers were still watching us warily, unsure whether to take chase or not. As I called Amidamaru once more, I wondered how many of them actually believed in what they were fighting for, and how many were just too scared to say no.

Feeling a fresh wave of resentment towards Hao and what he had done to the world, I focused and sent another blade of energy towards the soldiers. The ones that weren't hit backwards scattered in fear, probably scared that we were going to launch a major attack on them. When I was satisfied that no one was even remotely headed in our direction, I turned back to Men.

"Okay. _Now_ we can go."

Men eyed me as I picked Anna up again, and we started off at a quick but no longer rushed pace into the forest. The trees very quickly crowded in on us, forcing us to go quite slowly. That was why we had dismissed this place as a home when we had first arrived — it was pretty much uninhabitable. But for now, it meant that it would hide us well and it would be nearly impossible for any soldiers to find us, if they dared to follow us in.

"Well," started Men awkwardly, after we had been walking for about ten minutes, "that went a lot better than it could have done."

"Yeah…" I trailed off, remembering Anna. Hesitating for a moment, because we were still pretty close to the edge of the forest, but then disregarding it as unimportant, I gently lay Anna against another tree. I was unused to seeing her so vulnerable and helpless and, for a bit, I just sat next to her, feeling overwhelmed.

"You know," said Men quietly, coming to sit beside me, "you did kind of save my life back there. A bit."

I smiled. He must have been pretty shaken to admit that. "Well, the purpose of us teaming up was to help each other survive, right?"

"And the purpose of us staying alive," he declared, "is to stop Hao."

I nodded, smiling again in spite of everything. Men had his moments. Then I turned back to Anna. "Well, for now, let's make sure Anna survives, yeah?"

Men smirked. "Yeah, if we let her die, I don't think her spirit would ever give us any rest."

I frowned slightly and Men drooped.

"Sorry. Not the right moment?"

"You can joke once we're sure she's going to live, okay?"

"Deal."

Reluctantly, afraid of what I might find, I started to examine Anna. Her breathing was regular and she didn't appear to be in too much pain. There was also pretty much no blood, which surprised me. But eventually I found where she had been hit: in her arm.

Men and I stared at the tiny wound in silence. That would never have been enough to knock her unconscious. It should have barely hurt. Unless…

"I'm not sure whether we should be glad or worried," said Men seriously, interrupting my train of thought for a second.

I nodded, not taking my eyes off the wound. There was no other explanation: Anna had been hit by a sedative. That meant that the soldiers hadn't been trying to kill us. They had been trying to capture us.

Hao wanted us alive.

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: <strong>As always, if you enjoyed it please leave a review!

-Anna


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